Auburn gold buyer's license suspended for five days

Friday

Aug 30, 2013 at 6:00 AMAug 30, 2013 at 7:00 PM

By Craig S. Semon, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

AUBURN — The chairman of the Board of Selectmen wanted up to a 60-day license suspension for a local gold, silver and platinum buyer for breaking the town's "junk license" protocols, but his colleagues suspended the business' license for only five days.

In a 3-2 vote Monday night, selectmen voted the five-day suspension for The Gold Depot, 809 Southbridge St. The suspension is from Sept. 9 through the 13.

Selectman Denise A. Brotherton lobbied for a complete revocation of the license, while Chairman Doreen M. Goodrich asked for a 60-day suspension. She said she would be willing to drop her recommendation down to a 30-day suspension if Anthony Beshai, The Gold Depot's owner and license holder, was willing to agree to spend 40 hours a week at his shop.

While it was revealed during the public hearing that although The Gold Depot was his primary source of income, Mr. Beshai only works there 15 hours a week, Ms. Goodrich said.

"When I voted against the short-term suspension, I felt that it certainly wasn't a strong enough penalty," Ms. Goodrich said. "The purpose of our policy is really to prevent places like this from taking in stolen jewelry. And I felt the license holder flagrantly violated the entire spirit of our policy."

She said The Gold Depot accepted jewelry stolen from a Webster selectman's home without properly logging the merchandise and keeping it on the property, as dictated by town bylaws.

According to testimony, $60,000 worth of jewelry, mostly gold,) was stolen, only a fraction of which was recovered. The housebreak suspect, who was arrested by police within 24 hours, told Webster police that he sold the stolen jewelry to The Gold Depot.

After Auburn police received reports that The Gold Depot had allegedly violated the town's "junk license," selectmen ruled that a violation had, in fact, occurred.

Mr. Beshai was found in violation by not keeping a log book that includes the names of sellers, the date and time of the sales, the sellers' license plates, a description of the items sold and a copy of the sellers' photo identification.

In addition, Mr. Beshai failed to keep all gold on site for 60 days and to keep all records and logs up to date and available for inspection by police during regular business hours.

"The license holder said that he felt it was safer for him to take it to a safety deposit box that he has at the bank than leave it on site," Ms. Goodrich said. "And I stated that although that may be correct, that's not a condition of your licensing. If you wish to break the condition of your license, you probably should have come before this board and requested that you be allowed to take it off site and hold it in a safe deposit box. And he did not do that."

According to the town's policy on junk licenses, recommended penalties are: for first violation, a one-day suspension; for a second violation, a two-day minimum with up to a five-day license suspension; and for a third violation, revocation if selectmen deem it appropriate, based on the seriousness of the violation.

"What we did learn the night of the hearing is the perpetrator was in with jewelry in the morning and made an exchange and received cash and then came back in the afternoon with more jewelry and received more cash," Ms. Goodrich said. "So I look at those as multiple violations, even though it was the same day. They did nothing. They took in the jewelry. They gave cash and they didn't follow any protocol whatsoever."